I.T

• Database


  A collection of related data about a particular subject (person, place or thing) stored together
• DBMS


  A software package designed to store and manage databases
• Manual database


  A hard-file storage system that consists of paper records, folders and filing cabinets or storage boxes
• Electronic database


  Organized collections of data, or information, that are stored in computer-readable form
• Computerized Database


  • Can hold a vast amount of data
  • Very fast to find a specific record
  • Can easily search for a specific criteria e.g. "all of the people who live in Warwick"
• Manual Database


  • Limited by physical storage space available
  • Can take a while to manually search through all of the records
• Computerized Database


  • Data can be sorted into ascending or descending order on multiple criteria
  • Can easily update or amend a record e.g. customer's address after moving house
• Manual Database


  • Difficult to search for a specific criteria; every record would have to be manually looked at
  • Changes have to be done manually. Records can look messy if scribbled out
  • Records can be lost or misfiled making it hard to find them
• Table


  A collection of records about a specific subject, divided into rows and columns
• Record


  A group of related fields pertaining to a particular person, place or thing
• Field


  An area reserved for a piece of individual data such as StudentNo
• Primary key


  A field in a table that uniquely identifies a record, which speeds up data retrieval, sorts data, and enables relationships between tables
• Database data types


  • Number
  • Text
  • Date/Time
• Number data type


  Can contain only a number, a decimal point and a plus or minus sign
• Text data type


  Can store alphabetic, alphanumeric, numeric and special characters. A number stored in a text field cannot be used in a calculation. A text field can hold up to 255 characters.
• Date/Time data type


  Holds one or several different formats of date and/or time